Toilet seats are removed for replacement, repairs to the toilet, and cleaning. Most toilet seat assemblies are presently fastened to the toilet by means of fasteners which insert from the top of a hole and into a connector on the bottom of the hole, the most familiar example being a nut and bolt. Such assemblies require the use of tools for installation and removal. Metal fasteners tend to corrode and bind while plastic fasteners of this type tend to loosen with use. Recognition of the difficulties presented in such fasteners has prompted several alternative assemblies.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,004,023, discloses a toilet mounted `D` hole fixture into which a seat hinge `D` pin slides down into.
U.S. Pat. No. 2,593,534, discloses a cam locking fastener, which replaces the nut in a typical toilet seat assembly.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,055,015, discloses a releasable hinge assembly which has an expandable section at the base of the fastener which can be contracted by squeezing. The expanded section replaces the nut.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,449,774, discloses an attachment device having a deformable sleeve which expands at sides and base to hold the seat. Deformation is done by an internal nut.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,396,663, discloses an eccentric central spindle that when turned deforms and expands a sleeve which fits into a toilet seat mounting hole.
Fasteners with expandable and deformable sleeves are used for attaching and sealing a number of devices. Among the earliest of these are bottle stoppers such as those shown in U.S. Pat. Nos. 408,364, 875,397, and 1,212,871. Fasteners include U.S. Pat. No. 2,365,372, which is a hold-down attachment for a trolley seat. However, these generally have used a cylindrical center, which expands a cylindrical sleeve. Devices which use permanently installed pieces are unsatisfactory since the piece traps dirt.
It is desirable to have a fastener which makes it easy to install or remove a toilet seat assembly, and has no part permanently fastened to the toilet. It is also desirable to have a fastener which provides a compressing force to attach the fastener to the ceramic toilet fixture. In addition, the fastener should not use expandable or deformable components which degrade with use and are hard to clean.